Transforms from race car to robot and back!
FUNCTION: MECHANICAL ENGINEER
"Never do what your enemy expects you to do."
WHEELJACK is the mad scientist of the Autobots. Always inventing new weapons and gadgets. Most adept at driving while in car mode. Likes to show off his stunts. Flying range of 800 miles using solid-fuel rockets in arms. Shoots magnetic inducer, shrapnel-needle and gyro-inhibitor shells from his shoulder cannons. He is his own worst enemy. Often injured while experimenting with new weapons.
- Strength: 7
- Intelligence: 9
- Speed: 7
- Endurance: 5
- Rank: 8
- Courage: 9
- Firepower: 7
- Skill: 10
Transformers Tech Specs
Like Jazz and Smokescreen, Wheeljack's exotic design and paint job was based on an actual racing car: the Alitalia-sponsored Lancia Stratos which won the World Rally Championship in 1975. The car itself, now preserved in a racing museum in Japan, can be seen at http://www.geocities.com/kidk0rrupt/lancia/lancia.htm -- Takara preserved the racing numbers and all the colors, changing only the spelling of "Alitalia" to "Alitalla" for legal reasons.
Wheeljack's status as an engineer and inventor gave him a whole lot of airtime in the cartoon, since he was always the one the Autobots called on when something mechanical needed to be built (not re-built; that was Ratchet's job). They played down the stunt-driving and tendency toward self-injury, though, probably because it wouldn't look good to have the good guys blowing themselves up on a regular basis.